Figure skating at the 1972 Winter Olympics
| Figure skating at the XI Winter Olympics | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Olympic Games |
| Venue: |
Makomanai Skating Rink Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink |
| Champions | |
Men's singles: Ondrej Nepela
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Ladies' singles: Beatrix Schuba
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Pair skating: Irina Rodnina / Alexei Ulanov
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| Previous: 1968 Winter Olympics |
|
| Next: 1976 Winter Olympics |
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Figure skating was contested at the 1972 Winter Olympic Games. The competition took place at the Makomanai Skating Rink and Mikaho Indoor Skating Rink.
Results of both the men's and ladies' singles events were dominated by placements in the compulsory figures, which at this time were nominally worth 50% of the total score but in fact weighted more heavily than the free skating due to being judged using a wider range of marks.
In the men's event, Ondrej Nepela, the figures winner, took the gold in spite of placing only 4th in the free skating after falling on his triple loop jump. The free skating winner was Sergei Chetverukhin, who skated one of his best performances at this event to take the silver medal. Patrick Péra, second in the figures, had a poor free skating in which he fell on a triple salchow jump early in his program and then made other mistakes. Nonetheless the weight given to figures allowed him to take the bronze medal ahead of John Misha Petkevich, Kenneth Shelley, and Toller Cranston, who all skated dynamic programs with at least one cleanly landed triple jump apiece.
The effect of the figures was even more pronounced in the ladies' competition, where gold-medal winner Beatrix Schuba placed only 7th in the free skating, performing mostly single jumps. The free skating was won by Janet Lynn, who received a perfect mark of 6.0 in spite of falling on a flying sit spin. Lynn's skating captivated the Japanese audience, especially when she got up smiling from her fall. Lynn took the bronze while Karen Magnussen, second in the free skating with a strong performance, took the silver. The third-place skater in the free skating, Sonja Morgenstern, included a triple salchow in her program, which at this time was very rare for a female skater. She placed 6th overall.
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